How to Increase Your Memory Power

This is a great post on how to increase your memory power from the brilliant PsyBlog. Jeremy is currently working towards his PhD at University College, London and has already achieved his Masters in Research Methods in Psychology. He’s one of my psychology blogging heroes who really knows his stuff.

We don’t just think with our minds, we also use our bodies. For example, research has shown that we understand language better if it’s accompanied by gestures.

We can also use gestures to encode memories. Researchers trying to teach Japanese verbs to English speakers found that gesturing while learning helped encode the memory (Kelly et al., 2009). Participants who used hand gestures which suggested the word were able to recall almost twice as many Japanese words a week later.

‘Empowering your brain since 2008’ is Alex’s blog slogan and his blog does just that. Alex covers a wide range of topics related to life management, including motivation, health, productivity and of course, how to improve your memory power. This extract comes from his excellent post ‘11 Quick Tips on How to Improve Your Memory‘.

Make combinations – Associate your thoughts

Combine what you want to remember with things you already know. The item that connects them may be a colour, a number or a rhyme. To remember a list of things, try to associate the items in the list with images and visualize them in your brain. For example if the first think in your list is a pen try to visualize the list and keep an image of a pen on top. So you have visually combined the pen with the first thing of your list.

You can also use acronyms and combinations of names – or make suggestions using the first letter of each word – as retention tools.

I absolutely love Pick The Brain. I only discovered it fairly recently, but it’s been going since late 2006. What I especially like about the site is that it really delivers on that initial idea and genuinely serves the readership.

Sera Filson is a guest writer on Pick the Brain. A health enthusiast and student, Sera’s created a great guide on how to increase your memory power with 6 Foods to Help Improve Your Brain Power. This is just one of the excellent tips:

Build Your Brain: Healthy Fats

The majority of the cell structure in the brain consists of healthy fats, including the most important healthy fats, called Omega-3 fatty acids. As the brain continues to fix itself and grow additional neurons, it needs a good amount of Omega-3s to be consumed.

The best food sources to get your Omega-3 from, in order of importance, are:

Pick something you can see in your minds eye, that clearly represents the idea [that you want to remember]. If your great idea involves some kind of product that is a part of a million dollar idea, visualize the product.

If your great idea involves a person you know, visualize that person. If your great idea involves an idea which is intangible or is more of a philosophical concept which can’t be represented by a physical object, you have a couple of options…Read More

PsychCentral was introduced to me by a friend who found it incredibly helpful when she was coming out of a long period of drug addiction. She knew it had taken its toll on her psychologically and PsychCentral was a great place for her to get some answers.

The more senses you involve when you need to encode memory, usually the more strong a memory it becomes. That’s why the smell of mom’s home-baked cookies can still be recalled as fresh as though she were downstairs making them just now.

Need to remember someone’s name you met for the first time? It may help to look them in the eye when you repeat their name, and offer a handshake. By doing so, you’ve engaged 4 out of your 5 senses.

This is slightly different from the other blogs in that its focus is specifically on helping the elderly in our society.

I love the concept of this post in particular, as it eloquently presents the idea of creating a memory fitness plan. Kathryn lays out the first step of an entire plan that shows you how to increase your memory power.

How often do you hear yourself or someone else say they are having a senior moment or a similar expression? You have a choice to use those words, ignore the opportunity for making a change and have the situation reoccur over and over.

Do not put yourself down. Think of a solution instead. If it does not work, try another one. Keep working at it. No one remembers everything. Give yourself credit when a strategy works.

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So, there you have it… 6 brilliant bloggers sharing their secrets on how to increase your memory power.

Leave a comment below and let me know what you think of these ideas, or if you have your own tips on how to increase your memory power, share them with us below.

I'm James Gladwell, chief contributor and editor of SmartMemoryPower.com. I'm fascinated by the human mind and I set this site up in order to help people increase their memory power, while I learned how to improve mine. Feel free to leave a comment on the site and let me know how you think I can make the site better.

Comments (2)

A strong memory depends on the health and vitality of your brain. And there are lots of things you can do to improve your memory and mental performance.
Omega-3 fatty acids are particularly beneficial for brain health. To boosting brainpower, eating fish may also lower your risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease. If you’re not a fan of fish, consider turning to fish oil supplements. Other non-fish sources of omega-3s include walnuts, ground flaxseed, flaxseed oil, pumpkin seeds, and soybeans.